BEAUTY KLINIC

Remember when a pair of hand painted reading glasses was all the rage? You might not have been wearing readers at that point, but if you did, these glasses looked like someone took the time to personally place their artistic talent on your eyeglass frames.

Take a look in the mirror and focus on the area above your eyes. What shape do your brow bones and eyebrows create? This area may look very oval, round, flat, curved inward, curved outward, etc.. The point is that this feature is unique to you.

Clear plastic reading glasses offer a clear frame as the name suggests. The plastic frames are good for stronger prescriptions because they offer more coverage for the edges of these thicker lenses.

When buying wholesale reading glasses, be sure to try it on first before purchasing. Try and feel the way it frames your face and how it feels like when you are wearing it.

Small in size but made from high quality metals and zyls, these reading glasses offer style and functionality in a big way.

You can also find compact magnifying lenses that come in the size of credit cards but which are provided with a tough polymer-coated acrylic frame to withstand wear and tear. These lenses can fit inside a small wallet or hooked in a key chain. Some come in as fancy pendants that you could swing around your neck.

Most of these compact reading glasses now also come in a variety of designs, textures and colors. With such variety, you are bound to find a reading glass that suits you and the purpose for which you require reading glasses.

If you do need reading glasses and you do a lot of work on close by objects like reading or writing or working on a computer, you might want to consider full frame reading glasses.

These eyeglasses will give a much wider viewing area than other glasses so working with them is easy. Perfect for those who are constantly into close-up work, these frames and lenses allow a real wide range of magnified vision.

Fashion trends change, and styles of glasses change to keep up. Even in similar-looking products, you will find wide variances in construction of lenses, hinges and frames. The materials used to make the glasses can make the difference between a pair that lasts for a week and a pair that lasts for years.

Trends in eyeglasses may seem as though they change more often than your prescription. If you are in the market for new glasses, here are some of the things you need to know about recent trends.

Big Is in, but Only Sometimes

Big frames are in style right now, but only for sunglasses. What does this mean for you as you shop for new eyeglasses? You may consider splurging for prescription sunglasses with big, bold frames. These protect your eyes well and add that ‘Hollywood’ flair to your overall look.

Thick Frames Are All the Rage

Look at a picture of your relatives from the 70s, and you will notice that they wore thick, boxy, plastic frames. Todays glasses take a modern spin on this style. The lenses are smaller and rectangular in shape, but the thick, dark frames are definitely in, creating a sort of ‘geek chic’ look. In addition, colored plastic frames are in style, and many people are enjoying coordinating their glasses to match their outfits. Imagine donning a pair of pink glasses with your favorite pink blouse, and then trading them for a blue pair for that evening dress you own.

John Lennon Inspired Frames

Completely round glasses, such as those often worn by John Lennon, are also popular right now. Again, the frames are usually plastic, and they come in a variety of fashionable colors and patterns. Tortoiseshell is one option for those that want a little bit of color in their specs.

Rimless Glasses

Believe it or not, you can now buy glasses that have no rims. These have a noseband and some decoration on the earpieces, but there is nothing surrounding the lens. They can make quite a statement and draw attention to your eyes, rather than to your glasses.

Classic Styles Always Work

Thin, metal rims surrounding a lens shape that fits your face, whether circular, oval, or even square, are almost always an option. You can buy designer frames in these styles, and you will know that your glasses will match just about any outfit you may be wearing. Sometimes less is more, and these understated glasses will be fashionable for many years, help draw attention to your eyes, not your glasses, and work well in corporate America.

Dont Forget Your Face Shape

Wearing the latest trends is great, but only if they look good on you. Everyone has a unique face shape, and some frames will not look good on you. First think about the position of your eyes on your face. Make sure that your eyes fall within the center of the frames you are looking to buy. Also, consider your faces width. You should only have a small space between the edge of the frames and the side of your face.

Your eyebrow is another consideration. Never buy glasses that cross your brow line, and make sure that they are either quite a bit below or above your brows. Choose lenses that fit the proportions of your body as well. If you are slender and short, thick, bulky glasses are going to look out of place on your face. This applies to choosing rimless glasses as well.

The Bottom Line

While you may think you know what type of glasses you want and what latest trend you wish to wear, you cannot truly know what glasses will look great on you until you try them on. If you are going to order glasses online, visit a store so that you can try on several different styles and find the one that fits your face shape well before you order online. When you put on a pair of glasses that is trendy and looks good on you, you will know that they are the perfect pair the moment you look in the mirror!

With the increasing popularity of special effects contact lenses, a common question that arises is - “How many times will I be able to use them?” The answer to this question is dependent upon many factors - who manufactured the lenses, what purpose the were designed for and how well you take care of them could all be major factors in how many times you can wear your special effects lenses.

Quality and Design

You’ve heard the old saying, “you get what you pay for?” Well, expect it to hold true for special effects contact lenses as it does for many of life’s important purchases including eyeglasses. If you only spent three dollars for your cat eye special effects contact lenses from the Halloween section at the convenience store at the gas station, don’t expect to get very many wears out of them. You’re more likely to end up with an eye infection than a long term fashion accessory from such a purchase.

If you go to a licensed eye care professional and spend money on a nicely designed and quality lens, then you could very easily wear them for several months without having any problems what so ever.

It isn’t necessarily the cost that determines exactly how many wears you’ll get out of your special effects lenses though, you could pay top dollar for a pair of one time lenses that were custom made. The possibilities are almost limitless when it comes to design, amazing artists can hand craft painted designs, the likes of which would have been impossible just a few years ago, onto clear lenses for special sequences and scenes on TV or in movies. It’s likely though that some of these ornate designs would be very uncomfortable or would hinder vision to the point that it wouldn’t be advisable to wear them for more than a few hours.

Even if you do go through the proper sources to obtain your lenses and pay for a quality product from a licensed distributor of contact lenses, it’s very possible that the type of lens you choose may only be suitable for a single wear. You need to check with your optometrist to see if the design you want is available in an extended wear lens or whether the manufacturer only makes it in a disposable or single wear style.

How you take Care of Them

You can buy top quality extended wear special effects contact lenses that could last you probably as long as you’d like them to, but if you don’t take care of them as per the instructions they won’t last nearly as long as they could. People who already wear contact lenses regularly and know the process of keeping them in good condition shouldn’t have any problem caring for special effects lenses, the cleaning and storage process may even be exactly the same as their prescription lenses. Some specialty lenses may require extra care to ensure a long life, but it should be very similar to regular contact lens maintenance.

You may, however, want to go the extra mile with your special effects lenses as far as care is concerned because good ones will likely cost you a lot more to replace than a regular set of contact lenses such as Acuvue - especially if they are prescription, and a similar pair may be much more difficult to find. Even if you are very careful with your special effects lenses, they can still get lost, or rip and become unusable, that’s why it’s best to take every precaution when it comes to the care and storage of these special lenses.

If you are in the market for a pair of special effects lenses that will be with you for a while, your best bet is to pay the extra money for a high quality extended wear lens, and then take care of it as best as you possibly can - that way, barring any unforeseen accidents, you can have your lenses for as long as you want to wear them.

Decorative and special effects lenses are rapidly increasing in popularity. People who were unhappy with their regular eye color can now simply pop in a different colored lens and be instantly transformed into someone else for an evening or weekend, and that person will often gain a good bit of confidence with the transformation. Its not uncommon for some people to have several different pairs of decorative or special effects lenses just like different pairs of eyeglasses so they can change eye color to match different outfits for different occasions.

Special effects lenses are used in conjunction with Halloween and costume parties and in theater productions all year long. Some special effects lenses are the piece that makes a costume complete - like a cats eye.

All too often though, someone will buy a special effects lens from an unreliable source to save time and money and end up suffering with a painful eye problem because of it.

Its true that decorative special effects contact lenses come in both prescription strengths as well as in zero-powered strengths so that people who dont have vision problems can comfortably wear them - this, however, does not meant that you dont have to be careful and take appropriate precautions before wearing them.

Theres a popular misconception that just because the contact lenses arent prescription strength that they are safe to be worn by anyone at any time without any risk to the wearer. Special effects contact lenses can, in reality, cause many eye problems, but there are some steps that someone who wants to wear them can take to ensure that they will be as safe as possible during the time that have the decorative contact lenses on.

What to do to be Safe

Before you sit down at your computer and order a pair of special effects lenses from some overseas store on the internet or run out and get a pair from a vending machine at a costume shop - you should know that these practices are likely to land you at the Optometrist with a nasty eye infection.

Your best bet to get a comfortable, high quality pair of lenses that will fit you properly is to schedule an appointment with a licensed eye care professional for an exam. Your eye exam will tell you for certain if it will be safe for you to wear lenses. If your exam shows that wearing contacts is safe for you, youll likely be able to get fitted and purchase the lenses that you want right at the office. This will ensure that you get the best quality product from someone who is supposed to be selling it. Even zero powered decorative contact lenses must be distributed through a licensed outlet, just because they arent designed to correct a vision problem doesnt mean that anyone who wants to sell them is allowed to sell them.

If you already wear contacts regularly, you should still ask your regular eye care professional what their opinion of you wearing special effects lenses is. If you havent had an eye exam in a while, they may want to see you to make sure the decorative lenses that you chooses will be available in your prescription so as to not cause any problems.

If you decide that wearing special effects lenses is for you and you are cleared to do so by a licensed professional, be sure to follow the instructions for wearing and caring for your lenses. Just like wearing regular contact lenses like Acuvue, you shouldnt wear them to bed, in the ocean or a pool and you should never swap lenses with anyone - even if they have the same prescription as you.

Even the slightest miss-step in following these instructions could lead to a serious eye problem - a problem much worse than not liking your current eye color.

While mom would have you believe that sitting too close to the TV and other bad habits have caused the challenge, most people by the age of 42 require reading glasses for near vision.

It’s just presbyopia!

Presbyopia is actually blurry near vision due to a natural decrease in your eyes ability to focus. That’s right, it’s normal - it happens to everyone about age 40. Some have defined presbyopia as the shortening of the arms that prevent you from holding an object far enough away to be read. While this makes great comedy, it’s not true. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. Wives tales Would have you believe that wearing glasses make sit worse, the explanation is really simple.

Inside each eye is a crystalline lens which is responsible for focusing our vision between distant and near objects. When a person looks far away the lens in the eye is relaxed, but when that person looks at something nearby, such as a book, the lens flexes to focus on the book. In our youth the lens, like us, is very flexible and active - it can focus on a distant mountain and seconds later read a book held 4 inches from our noses. Over time that lens, also like us, gets a little thicker around the middle and doesn’t like to flex as much.

Because of these changes the lens becomes unable to flex like when we were younger to focus on nearby objects. By age 40 that lens is so fat and lazy it won’t even help out when we’re trying to read the newspaper or see our watch. Objects at 40 centimeters, our usual reading distance, become blurry.

Even though this process continues through our life, it’s at 40 that we notice the change because we no longer do the nearby that we used to do. New lenses, such as glasses or contacts must be used to focus our near vision.

Fortunately for Americans today there are many great options to overcome this obstacle. In addition to the traditional bifocal or reading glass options we now also have no-line bifocals, also called progressive lenses, we have a variety of bifocal contact lenses, cataract surgeons are using new implantable lenses that can be surgically inserted in place of a person’s natural lens, and monovision LASIK is still available. New and better technology shows up every day and your local optometrist can tell you about the latest.